


My Unconquerable Soul

by Vesania94



Series: Masters Of Our Fate: The Heroines of Thedas [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Archdemons (Dragon Age), Betrayal, Deep Roads, Dwarves In Exile, F/M, Fratricide, Grey Warden Joining, Grey Wardens, Surface Dwarf Culture and Customs, The Blight (Dragon Age), first time on the surface
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 15:20:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7579210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesania94/pseuds/Vesania94
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicia Aeducan was not eager to fight the Blight away from her home in Orzammar, but her youngest brother's attack changes her chosen path dramatically. Thrust onto the surface by the betrayal of her kin, she must fight to unite a land she has no ties to, but falls in love with all the same.</p>
<p>The first book of the Masters Of Our Fates series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Unconquerable Soul

“My Lady Aeducan, you have been charged with the murder of your eldest brother, Prince Trian. By order of your father the King, we are to be exiled from Orzammar.” Felicia slumped against the bars, her mouth set in a hard line. “I am sorry, my Lady.”

“It’s alright, Gorim. I don’t blame you,” she breathed deeply, both savoring and reviling the musty scent of deep mushroom that bloomed around her. “Where am I being exiled to?”

“The Deep Roads.”

Felicia’s eyes closed slowly and she weighed the sentence carefully. “So there’s no hope. I’m going to die without a House or a name.”

“There may be an option my Lady. That Grey Warden went into the Deep Roads. You may be able to find them and escape to the surface.”

“So my options are die, or pledge my life to an order I know nothing substantial about and go... what? Go topside?”

“Living with valor in the light is better than dying at the end of a genlock’s blade in the dark, my Lady,” Gorim sighed, leaning up against the bars. “Madaena-”

“Don’t call me that, Gorim,” Felicia hissed, pushing off the bars. “I’m not going to tarnish her name as well as my own.”

“Your grandmother would be proud to have a Grey Warden as a grandchild, my Lady. Besides, this is one of the last few times you will hear your name from one of your own kin. I’m running out of time to be here to talk to you. Lord Harrowmont is trying to stop Bhelan from taking over the entire assembly- he’s been wilier than we thought.”

“Mother did say he was going to be a slippery one,” Felicia sighed. Both of their heads shot up as the clank of a guard came down the hall.

“Time’s up, exile. You’re wanted by the King before we escort you topside.”

“Gorim-”

He clasped her tiny hand in his large calloused one. “May the Stone never forget your name, and accept you when you fall, Princess Madaena Felicia Aeducan. I hope to see you in a better life.”

“Gorim!” Felicia yelled through the bars, pounding on the wrought iron that encased her. “Tell my father- tell my father I’m sorry!”

“I will, Felicia. I will.”

She slipped down the bars, kneeling as she cried into the threadbare skirt of the shift she had been given to wear. The door to her cell creaked one more time as it was opened.

“Exile. It is time.”

She could feel the eyes of the people following her, watching their own Rose of Orzammar lead through the Commons in chains. She momentarily snickered at the nickname she had been given in the Provings: the beautiful, enchanting Princess of Orzammar, who could prick a man with a thousand cuts from tiny daggers. She was brought out of her mind by the smack of something rotten smattering across her back.

“Traitor!”

“Kin-Slayer!”

The pelting of rotten vegetable matter continued as she was lead towards the mines, tripping over her feet as sharpened rocks bit into her heels. Someone tipped ice cold water over her head as she passed through the archway towards the entrance of the Deep Roads, and she shrieked in shock as laughter pealed over the arching caverns. At the entrance she was met by Lord Harrowmont, who held a large piece of parchment, seals upon seals dripping from its edges.

“By the order of the King and the Assembly of Orzammar, we hereby exile the Crown Princess Madaena Felicia Aeducan to the Deep Roads to atone for her crime of Fratricide.” A guard reached up to her head and removed the comb that held her hair on top of her head, letting the thick blonde curls pour around her face in sodden strings. There was a click as the chains were removed from her wrists, and she looked up into Harrowmont’s face, her cheeks blazing red in sorrow and embarrassment. “You are to be cast into the Deep Roads with only sword and shield to defend yourself before the Horde, and bring honor to your House when you fall. It is-” Harrowmont’s voice cracked “-it is the will of the Assembly that your name has been stricken from the Memories. You are stripped of your House, your name, and your titles. May the Stone accept you when you fall, Exile.”

She bit back tears as a rust bitten sword was thrust into her hand, and a ragged half rotten shield was hoisted onto her arm. She looked at Harrowmont as he approached her.

“Tell me you didn’t do this, for your father’s sake.”

“It was Bhelan. It was Bhelen all along,” she whispered before the guards pushed her out of his grasp towards the entrance of the Deep Roads. “I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner.”

“Goodbye, Felicia. Go with the good will of House Harrowmont. We will not forget you.”

The massive doors slammed shut behind her as she broke down and wept.

 

The pickings of the Deep Roads were slim, but she had scrounged together some semblance of protection from the corpses that rested around her. She felt the bile rise in her throat as she recognized crests and pins from long dead corpses, some from families that no longer existed in the Assembly. She spun the bright daggers she had found in her hands, tearing a strip off of the shift which now carried her small bundle of foundling belongings. She secured her long hair in some semblance of a braid, using a long spindle of wire she had found on a body to twist it into an overly large bun on the back of her head. _Void take my pride,_ she thought bitterly as the weight pulled at her scalp. She momentarily considered hacking it off with one of the daggers before sighing. She would regret that action bitterly. She turned at the sound of voices behind her, and carefully picked her way towards them. The Grey Warden she had met earlier was picking over a darkspawn. Her toe touched a tiny speck of rubble, and she darted behind a pillar as an arrow glanced off the stone.

“Wait! Wait, please!” She yelled, sheathing her daggers and holding her hands above her head.

“Ser it’s a dwarf!” the other Warden hissed, nocking another arrow, but thankfully not pulling back. Felicia crept carefully out from behind the pillar, her hands still up. The senior Warden looked at her in surprise -Duncan, if memory served correctly.

“My Lady Aeducan? Where are your soldiers?” Duncan asked carefully. Felicia looked up at him sadly.

“I’m no longer an Aeducan, Ser Warden.”

“So you have been made to walk the Deep Roads then.”

“What happened? Yesterday she was this high and mighty Princess and-”

“You don’t need to answer that my Lady. I’m sure that the political intrigues of the Dwarven nobility of no concern to us.” Duncan said, glaring at the younger warden.

“Please, Ser. Call me Felicia. As for _your_ question, Ser,” Felicia said, bowing slightly and turning to the junior Warden, “my youngest brother has framed me for the murder of my eldest brother, leaving me exiled. I came to see if maybe-”

“You wanted to see if we could take you with us, so you can become a Grey Warden,” Duncan finished, nodding slightly. “Then allow me to once again formally invite you to join our Order.”

“I accept, Ser Duncan. Thank you for this opportunity. So I guess... we go to the surface?”

“Yes, Felicia. We are making our way to Ostagar, far to the south in the Kocari Wilds,” Duncan nodded, smiling slightly. “We will make our way to the exit now. We have found what we required. There is a tunnel that will lead us to the surface nearby.”

Felicia froze slightly. “So soon? I... uh-”

“Don’t worry yourself, Lady Aeducan. We will not see the surface for at least a week. You have time to prepare yourself for the experience,” Duncan laughed, patting her on the back as he walked past her. She shouldered her tiny bundle, and followed behind.

 

She could smell the difference in the air when the reached the tunnel that would take them topside. It was emptier- it smelled more like the entrance hall to Orzammar, almost overly fresh. Her sense of taste tipped her off next, as damp earthy smell sank onto her tastebuds, and Duncan used the word ‘petrichor’ to help explain it to her. ‘The smell of dusty soil as the rain starts to fall’ he had said. Then he had to explain rain to her. The concept baffled her: water falling from where there was no ceiling? The entire idea struck her as impossible. The soil on her feet became softer as they started to ascend, she could see a pinprick of light which steadily grew brighter and brighter as they drew nearer to it.

When they arrived at the mouth of the cave, Felicia shrank up against the wall in terror. Her heart pounded in her chest like a great drum, her eyes burned in the brightness. Duncan turned back towards her, extending a hand.

“It is alright. You won’t fly up into the sky. Don’t worry,” he soothed, and she shrank back farther into the darkness.

“It’s so... big!” she whispered, sounding conflicted. “You’re sure I won’t disappear into that giant blue expanse if I step out of this cave?”

“You have my word, Felicia. You will not come to harm on account of the sky.” She took Duncan’s hand gingerly, taking a tentative step into the light that cut across the cave floor like carved line. She felt the heat hit her hand first as he drew her closer and closer to the cave mouth, her other one still touching the cool stone that kept her anchored, and she gasped in surprise. “It’s alright. You’re doing well.”

“It’s-” she started, wincing as the light struck her face, snapping her eyes shut, “by the Stone this is- what _is_ this?”

“Sunlight, Miss Felicia!” the other warden laughed, giving her a playful shove, which made her recoil again. “The Maker’s own creative light, shining down on us!”

“Shh, it’s ok Felicia,” Duncan continued to soothe as she took another tentative step, her eyes blinking slightly as they adjusted to the brightness. “That’s it.” She gripped his hand tighter as they exited the cave, nearly crushing it in her grip as they moved further and further away from the stone. She could feel the sorrow in her blood as she walked further and further away, a kind of sticky sweet sorrow that made her teeth ache and her chest burn. She was shaken from her thoughts by Duncan’s quiet chuckle.

“You can let go of my hand now, Felicia. I assure you, you’re quite safe.”

“You’re sure I won’t fly into the sky?” She questioned, staring him down. He nodded reassuringly and she carefully slackened her grip, finger by finger until she was barely touching him. “You’re positive?”

“I give my word, Felicia. You are safe out here.”

She took a deep breath, and let go, hugging her arms to herself as she envisioned her body flying up towards the heavens, squeezing her eyes shut. She realized a few seconds later that the other warden was laughing at her.

“You should have seen your face! Ooohohoo Maker that’s hilarious!” he hollered, slapping his leg. She scowled and punched him hard in the arm, and his laughter turned to a cry of pain. “Maker’s balls, woman! Where did you learn to punch like that!”

Duncan laughed heartily, patting Felicia’s shoulder. She smiled widely. “I grew up on training grounds with two brothers, Ser Warden,” she giggled, “learning to punch was day one!”

The warden smiled at her, rubbing the mark on his arm. “And what was day two, Miss Felicia?”

A cold look came to her eyes as she thumbed over the spot her signet ring used to sit on her finger. “How to kill.”


End file.
